After Uninspired First Half, Nova Leads Rutgers to Rout of Temple

PHILADELPHIA — Rutgers quarterback Gary Nova dropped the ball as he stood in his own end zone. He picked up the ball and to avoid a sack and a safety, flipped it left-handed 15 yards, where it bounced.

The problem was that Nova is right-handed.

The Scarlet Knights were stumbling, and losing, in the first half Saturday against Temple. But Nova, a sophomore from Elmwood Park, N.J., was far from disillusioned. He recovered to lift Rutgers to a 35-10 victory.

“It was pretty much like it can’t get any worse than this,” Nova said of his left-handed pass. “It’s not going to be easy. You got to fight.”

Rutgers (7-0, 4-0 Big East), ranked 19th, overcame a 10-0 halftime deficit against the determined Owls (3-3, 2-1) by scoring three third-quarter touchdowns, all on passes by Nova, a former high school star at Don Bosco Prep.

Nova threw a fourth touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter, and linebacker Khaseem Greene scooped up a fumble and rumbled 20 yards for a touchdown 50 seconds later to push the Scarlet Knights closer to the berth in a Bowl Championship Series game that goes to the conference champion.

“Where we are right now doesn’t get us what we want,” said Kyle Flood, the first-year Rutgers coach.

Nova was 5 for 12 passing for 56 yards at halftime. In the second half, he completed 12 of his 15 throws for 176 yards and 4 touchdowns — to wide receiver Tim Wright, running back Jawan Jamison, wide receiver Mark Harrison and tight end D. C. Jefferson.

Jamison, who finished with five catches for 81 yards, also ran for 114 yards on 19 carries.

Flood said his veteran defense did a good job of limiting the first-half deficit, but Nova was the star, in part because he never lost his poise.

“Just that mentality — it can’t be taught,” Wright said. “At the beginning, we struggled a little bit on offense, but just that mentality and personality Gary has — whatever’s in him, he’s definitely a winner. I feel like our offense believes in him.”

Saturday’s game was the first between the teams since 2004, when Temple was ousted from the Big East because the Owls rarely won or drew many fans. But Temple has had a football resurgence and was invited back this year.

The game, played on a cloudless afternoon, drew an announced 35,145 to Lincoln Financial Field, 51 percent of capacity. The crowd was boisterous, and the Owls, dressed in black, tested Rutgers early.

“We took some punches and we threw some punches, and we know that it’s not going to take one punch to win the game,” Rutgers cornerback Logan Ryan said.

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Rutgers had rallied from a 10-point first-quarter deficit at Arkansas on Sept. 22 for a 35-26 victory before a hostile crowd (hostile toward Rutgers early and the crumbling Razorbacks later). Saturday’s task did not seem so overwhelming.

Nova completed three of four passes for 52 yards on the Scarlet Knights’ first drive of the second half, which ended in a touchdown when Nova pump-faked and then lofted a perfect 32-yard pass to Wright. And he was only getting started.

“It’s hard to watch the team you watched in the first two periods and watch the team in the third period and ask: ‘What happened there? What was that?’ ” Temple Coach Steve Addazio said.

Rutgers then forced a Temple punt and drove 89 yards in nine plays to take the lead. To end the drive, Nova flipped a screen pass to Jamison, a sophomore who looks a little like the former Rutgers back Ray Rice, and he skittered 32 yards for a touchdown.

Ryan soon intercepted a pass by the Temple junior Chris Coyer, which led to a 49-yard drive. Rutgers never faced third down on the drive, which ended with Nova rolling to his right and firing a 5-yard scoring pass that Harrison dived to catch.

“There’s no point in getting worried when there’s so much time on the clock,” Harrison said. “We just went out there, got our stuff together and executed.”

Temple, grinding out 74 first-quarter rushing yards, became the first opponent to run for more than 100 yards against Rutgers this season, finishing with 119. And Nova’s streak of 164 passes without an interception ended on the final play of the first half.

“I am more interested in how we finish games,” said Flood, the first Rutgers football coach to win his first seven games.

A version of this article appears in print on October 21, 2012, on Page SP7 of the New York edition with the headline: After Uninspired First Half, Nova Leads Rutgers to a Rout of Temple. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe